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[1990-03-06-AJPW-Excite Series] Tiger Mask vs Kenta Kobashi


Loss

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  • 4 weeks later...

I suppose this is the first-ever Misawa vs Kobashi singles match. Misawa horribly botches a neckbreaker early on. In spite of this getting some recommendations, I wasn't really expecting that memorable of a match, and we didn't really get one. This is one that needed to be on to see how the match evolved over the years from their first meeting. And Kobashi just works circles around Misawa in this. The match picks up a little when they start working to the finish. But without the historical factor, there's just not much to see here.

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Kobashi doesn't quite get everything right but a lot of the classic touches are already there--the rolling cradle, bodyslam+moonsault+kickout+cry and pound mat, etc. Most of this is worked very junior-y with the trading arm drags and faceoffs and kip ups and all that. We do get some good old-fashioned AJPW near-falls and a VERY well-done buildup to the Tiger Driver finish. Still, Misawa was pretty much going through the motions here and the first half to 2/3 of the match wasn't bad (except for that neckbreaker) but pretty unmemorable. The last part was more Stuff than great psychology (except for Kobashi trying to avoid the TD), but it was pretty fun Stuff.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Misawa horribly botches a neckbreaker early on

Kobashi bumped early, tottaly his fault on that one. So far in none of the matches i've seen of Misawa's this year has he looked like anything close to a future Ace. That said, he was still the more complete wrestler here. Kobashi did a lot more big moves but he'd barely been wrestling 2 years at this point so still looked really rough around the edges here.

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Definitely had to be on the yearbook with it being there first singles match but oy vey this is not very good at all. On one hand I wish we just had the finish since this was time used that could have been used elsewhere but on the other hand, this match is great evidence in how much of a leap Misawa made in a short time. I can't begin to tell you with watching this footage how shocked I am that this is the same man that in 90 days will have one of my favorite matches of all time. We just don't see hardly any evidence of that or a crowd reaction clamoring for that here. Kobashi was till rough around the edges but his enthusiasm is endearing and enhances portions of this match.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected to given when it took place. The first half or so felt like two pros running through a routine they've worked on forever (almost akin to how I've read AJW used to start off young pros), before picking up after that with a few high spots and hot finish. I don't know if I'll appreciate it as much on a rewatch but thought it was a lot of fun on an initial viewing.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Tiger Mask with some high flying action to start. Quiet crowd for these two. They mess up a neckbreaker which gets a crowd response. Big splash from the top rope by Kobashi to the outside. He tries to do his rolling cradle but it doesn’t go too smoothly. Kobashi dominating but he switching back and forth between working the leg and back.

 

Tiger briefly fights back but Kobashi puts him on the ropes with some powermoves. Mask kicks out of the moonsault and then finally gets some offense on Kobashi and gets the win. Kobashi was dominating this match until the final stretch.

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It's weird, almost disorienting, to see Skinny Misawa with mask wrestling Skinny Kobashi wearing red.

 

It's hard for me to say Misawa is outworked here by Kobashi when Kobashi is the one who botches the neckbreaker. It feels more like Misawa is giving Kobashi most of the offense to let him shine before putting him away. This starts out pretty lousy but has a nice finishing sequence that gets the crowd into it. I don't regret watching it, but I probably won't remember watching it tomorrow either.

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  • 8 months later...
  • 1 year later...
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  • 1 year later...

This is such a funny match to watch considering what they'd do later. They wrestle like a bunch of X-Division chumps and people laugh at their blown spots. Kobashi does some legwork, to which Misawa of course comes back by landing some kicks and then a dive where he sprints across the ring. Pretty slow in parts and really just an average junior match, but I did get a kick out of Kobashi busting out the Calf Slicer.

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  • GSR changed the title to [1990-03-06-AJPW-Excite Series] Tiger Mask vs Kenta Kobashi
  • 3 years later...

I was close to calling this a terrible match before it was saved by the closing stretch. Most of the match was filled with sloppy, bland Junior Heavyweight style wrestling. Kobashi bumped too early for a neckbreaker and some of the counters weren't too smooth either. The crowd was relatively quiet before they began doing the spots that would be more refined later on and this got good quickly. One aspect of the match I thought was strong was the build to the Tiger Driver. The struggle of the whole spot was good. It's a shame the rest of the match is a bit of a mess.

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  • 3 months later...

A very notable match, given that it's the very first ever singles meeting between the two. It's not a good match. The finishing stretch is very good, and they manage to get the crowd into it as well with it, which is something, because the atmosphere was almost-completely dead for most of this match. I don't think the match is bad, as they don't overstay their welcome, but its just felt like most of it fell completely flat. Certainly wouldn't expect them to go & have the matches they would go on to have for years to come together based on this. **

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  • 1 year later...

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